Improvement in seam-stay guides for sewing-machines



E. CORBETT & C. F. HARLOW. BEAM-STAY GUIDE FOR SEWING-MACHINES.

Paterit'ed July 3, 1877.,

Mr/vrssis. bvvnvfo Q. y %i W (H d f gg N. PETERS, PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER: WASHINGTON D EDWARD (JORBETT AND CHARLES F. HARLOW, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS; SAID HARLOW ASSIGNOR TO SAID OORBETT.

IMPROVEMENT I'N SEAM-S-TAV'GUIDES FOR SEWING-MACHINES.

Specification-forming part of Letters Patent No. 192,565, dated July 3, 1877; application filed February 23, 1877.

To all whomit may concern:

Be it known that we, EDWARD Connnrr and CHARLES F.'HARLOW, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful or Improved Sewing-Machine Attachment, which invention is fully setv forth in the'following specification, reference being'had to the accompanying drawings.

Our invention relates to the process of strengthening or re-enforcing sewed seams by the application of an overlying strip of strong material, sewed thereon by two parallel lines of stitching, and commonly termed'a 7 The object of our invention is to facilitate the process of applying suchstays to sew-ed seams by avoiding the labor, expense, and.

delay hitherto involved in theusual preliminary preparation of the work, by opening: and pressing the seamwitha hot irou rfieparatory to stitching on the stay, employing in-place of such pressing operation a simple and efficient device, attachable to the various kinds of sewing-machines, with suitable modifications, which-shall, in connection with the feeding and stitching mechanisms of such Ina-- chines, automatically open and fold back the edges of a sewed seam, and press'the same upon the surface of the stay, while it guides and directs boththestay and seam, as they arefed along simultaneously, under and past the needle or needles, inproper relation thereto'and to eachother, to be suitably stitched together, thus automatically completing the entire-operation of applying the stay without any previous preparation ofthe work, and with much greater facility, especially when our invention is-applied to machines employing two needles and stitching two parallelseams at the same time, whereby the stay may be completely stitched upon theseam at" a single operation, or by passing the work onlyonc'e through the machine.

And our invention, as to mechanism, consists, broadly, in' a sewing-machine attachment comprising devices for automatically opening'and folding back the edges of a'sewe'd seam, for guiding and directing such seam,

and for guiding and directing thestay mate rial, so that said opened and-folded seam-and said stay shall, by the actionof the. feed-movement of the sewing-machine, be brought into: the desired relation to each other under the presser-foot of the machine, and be thereby properly held to receive the requisitestitchmg.

And the invention consists, in detaihiu a suitably-formed block or plateiuponltheiupper surface of said attachment, said blocker trieangular plate being so disposed inthe pathiof the feed-movementthatits forward point will continually separate the edges of the seam, and its sidesroll them back as the work: is fed. along by the machine.

It also consists in'com biningywithisaid open. ing and folding seam block or plate asubja cent channel or stay-guide, to give proper direction to the stayrelatively to the seamas they areboth simultaneously fed alongito'be stitched together.

It also consists in fixed or adjustable guides, arranged tooperate against theseam withiul the angles formed by folding back thezedges of' the'seannto keep the'same in properrelationi to the folding-plate, and properly directed-l in the path of the feed-movement relativelyto the stitching mechanism, and coincident witha the direction of the stay.

' It also consistsin a top presser or. guide, in combination with saidseam=guidesand fold ing-plate, so arranged as to keep the work: from rising off from saidfolding-plateiand out of said seam-guides.

It also consists in thevarious combinations and arrangements of the said devices with each other,andwith thefeeding and stitching mechanisms of sewing-machines, as will he hereinafter fully described, reference being had to the accompanying drawings;

lnthedrawings, Figure 1' is a top or plan view of our attachment detached from a: sew-- ing-machine. Fig.2is a rear elevation, or an. elevation of the upper end; of the same, as shown ,in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical sectionv of the same on line 00 m, Fig, 1. Fig; 4 is a side elevation of the same, andofthat part attached to the presser-barand portions of a sewing-machine towhichthesame is shown as attached. Fig. 5 is a vertical cross-sectiou of a portion of the presser bar and foot of a sewingmachine, showing also the position of the work thereunder when in process of stitching. Fig. 6 is a detached view, showing the serrated fcedbar I and portions of contiguous parts of other devices.

The principal part of the attachment, of which the top view is given in Fig. 1, is composed in this case of a base, A, mounted upon a slide, .8, Fig. 2, which is fitted to slide in a recess in the bed of the machine, as is common with Shuttlemachines. The base A may be rigidly attached to such slide, or may be so connected therewith as to be susceptible of lateral adjustment, if preferred. Between the upper and under surfaces of said base A is provided a longitudinal channel, a, which serves as a passage and guide for the stay. Upon the upper surface of base A, and over said stay-channel, is mounted a triangular block or plate, I), which serves to separate and fold back the adjacent edges of the seam as the work progresses by action of the feed movement. This block b is so disposed in the path of the feedmovement and so formed that its forward point will continually part the edges of the "seam, and its sides roll them back to the line of stitching which constitutes the seam, and fold them upon the body of the goods to which they respectively belong. There are also mounted upon the surface of base A two bent arms, 0 c, which are pivoted at d d, and are provided with studs 0 6. On a boss, f, is pivoted lever B, as shown, Fig. 1. This lever is provided with slots g g, which act upon studs 6 e to open and close the free ends ofarms c 0 when the end of lever B is moved in conformity to dotted line h. If moved into position on dotted line h, opposite that shown, it will close said arms, as shown in Fig. 2. Thus closed, the arms serve as guides on opposite sides of the line of stitching which forms the seam, acting against the work in the anglesv formed by folding the edges, as above described, upon their respective sides of said seam, such folded edges having free passage through the spaces 13 i, Fig. 2, resulting from 3116 angles formed in saida-rms.

In Fig. 4 our attachment is shown as apolied to a sewing-machine for special work, ind having a very narrow bed, 0, a portion )i' which is shown, and into a recess in which said slide 8 upon base A is fitted to slide longitudinally.

Upon the presser-bar D of said machine is ixed a horizontal arm, E, to which is attached b spring, 10, and into a slot in the end of which s pivoted a swinging presser-arm, F, to the ower end of which is affixed a roll, G. For :onvenience in manipulating the work, the .rm F is jointed to arm E, so that it may be wung up into the position shown by dotted ines, Fig. 4, and is secured in such position, .nd also in its vertical position, by force of pring is, resting upon its pivoted end, as hown. It also has a vertical movement conjointly with the presser-bar D, and is subject to the downward pressure exerted by thepresser-bar spring, except so far as it is relieved by the contact of the presser-foot H upon the work or bed of the machine, or when the force of said spring is taken off by the lifting-lever, which suspends the foot H and roll Gr above the work, as shown. The function of roll G is to press lightly upon the work above the guides c c and plate b, and thus to keep the work from rising off from said plate and out of said guides as the work progresses.

The practical operationof the invention is as follows The attachment A is placed in the recess of the bed 0 of the machine, as shown, Fig. 4; the arm F is swung up into the po- 'sition indicated by the dotted lines; the guides 0 0 are opened, as described, and shown in Fig. l; a strip of stay material is passed into the channel a, and extended through the same far enough to reach and come under the presser'foot H the work or article containing the seam to be strengthened by such stay is now placed upon the attachment, so that the line of stitching which constitutes the seam rests upon the forward point of plate b, while the edges united by said stitching extend on either side of said point and under the guides 0 c, which are now closed, as shown in Fig. 2. The work is next pushed forward by the hand of the operator far enough to insert it under the presser-foot H and upon the stay, when it is left' to the action of the feed-movement, (shown at I, Fig. 6,) the presser-foot and roll G being let down upon the same, as described. Now, by the action of the sewing-machine, the work is automatically fed along, and the seam and stay kept in proper relation to each other, as shown in Fig. 5, the edges m m being folded back under that portion of the material to which they respectively belong, and at the same time pressed upon the stay am such relation thereto that said stay properly overlies said seam, and, as in the case shown, when a machine having a single needle is employed, the said stay is united by a single line, 0, of stitches upon one side only of the seam. To complete the attachment of the stay by another line, 0, of stitches on the opposite side of the scam, the work must be again passed through the sewing-machine independently of our invention, and in the ordinary manner, which may be done with much greater facility from having already passed once through our attachment, as described. But when a machine with a double-stitching mechanism is employed, the advantage derived from the use of our invention therewith is greatly enhanced, as the process of applying the stay to the seam is then fully completed at a single operation.

We do not confine ourselves to the details of construction and arrangement herein shown and described, as it is obvious that many variations therefrom may be made without departing from the principle of our invention,

and must necessarily be made to adapt the invention to the various kinds of sewing-machines to which it is applicable.

What we claim as our invention is 1. Asewing-machine attachmentcomprising a device for opening and foldingback the edges of a sewed seam, a guide for directing such seam, and a guide for giving a corresponding direction to the stay, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

2. In combination with a feed mechanism of a sewing-machine, a device for separating and folding back the edges of a sewed seam, and guides for directing such seam and a strip of stay material, so that said opened and folded seam and said stay shall, by the action of such feed mechanism, be brought into the desired relation to each other, and properly held and pressed together While being fed along under and past the needle or needles, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

3. In combination with a sewing-machine. a seam opener and folder, I), or its equivalent, arranged to operate therewith, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

4. In a sewing'machine attachment, folder I) and stay-guide a, combined and arranged to .operate substantially as and for the purposes EDWARD OORBETT. CHARLES F. HARLOW.

Witnesses:

EUGENE HUMPHREY, T. W. PORTER. 

